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5 upgrading-checklist.html
6 Author : Manoj Srivastava ( srivasta@tiamat.datasync.com )
7 Created On : Thu Oct 29 20:54:48 1998
8 Created On Node : tiamat.datasync.com
9 Last Modified By : Julian Gilbey
10 Last Modified On : Mon Jun 19 20:06:50 2000
11 Last Machine Used: polya.maths.qmw.ac.uk
13 Status : Unknown, Use with caution!
20 <title>Policy checklist for upgrading your packages</title>
24 <h1>Policy checklist for upgrading your packages</h1>
26 <h2>About the checklist</h2>
29 The checklist below has been created to simplify the upgrading process
30 of old packages. Note, that this list is not `official.' If you have
31 doubts about a certain topic, if you need more details, or if you
32 think some other package does not comply with policy, please refer to
37 Here is how the check list works: Check out which policy version your
38 packages complies with currently. Than move upwards until the top and
39 check which of the items on the list might concern your package. If an
40 item does not give you enough details, please check out the Policy
44 <h2>The checklist</h2>
50 - A package of priority standard or hihger may provide two
51 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
52 and the other without.
58 - By default executables should not be built with the debugging
59 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
60 package with debugging information optionally.
61 - Policy for packages where the upstream uses html changelog
62 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
63 should always be generated for the upstream changes.
64 - Please note that the new release of the X window system (4.x)
65 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy.
66 - Policy for packages providing an X server has been codified
67 (formalizes existing practice - use virtual package xserver)
68 - Policy for packages providing an X terminal emulator has been
69 codified (use virtual package x-terminal-emulator)
70 - Policy for packages providing an X window manager has been
71 codified (use virtual package x-window-anager, and also as an
72 alternative for /usr/bin/x-window-manager. The policy has
73 guidelines on how to calculate priority)
74 - Policy for packages providing an X fonts has been
75 codified. Please look into the manual for details; this section
76 has been written from scratch.
77 - Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
78 has been clarified. Please read the manual for details.
79 - Policy for packages providing an X application default has been
81 - No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles.
84 - Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
85 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
91 - Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
92 etc. Should not affect many packages.
97 - /usr/doc/<package> has to be a symlink pointing to
98 /usr/share/doc/<package>. This symlink has to be
99 maintained by postinst and prerm, because dpkg will cause
100 problems otherwise. Create/remote the symlinks using debhelper
101 or see section "6.4. Accessing the documentation" for more
103 - Introduced source dependencies. (Whereas this ought to demand a
104 major policy number rise, we've only just had one of them, so
105 I'm going to use a minor number instead.)
106 - /etc/rc.boot has been deprecated in favour of /etc/rcS.d.
107 Packages should not be touching this directory, anyway, but
108 should use update-rc.d instead.
109 - update-rc.d is now the *only* allowable way of accessing the
110 /etc/rc?.d/[SK]??* links. Any scripts which manipulate them
111 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
112 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
114 - Compiled examples go in /usr/lib/<package>/examples with
115 symlinks from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/* or from
116 /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples itself.
117 - Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts /var/state to
119 - Added MIME sub-policy document.
120 - VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR.
121 - Modified liblockfile description, which affects
122 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
124 - If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
125 version should also be included. Such a version may be prepared
126 using lynx -dump -nolist.)
129 - Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
130 added: see section 5.1.
136 - Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for the
137 packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the
138 .la files must go in the run-time library package.
144 - Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
145 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
147 - Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
148 control files, though all four digits are still permitted.
149 - The location of the GPL has changed to
150 /usr/share/common-licenses. This may require changing the
151 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
153 - Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
154 include the .la files in the -dev packages.
155 - Use logrotate to rotate log files
156 - section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
158 - There is now anassociated menu policy, in a separate document,
159 that carries the full weight of Debian policy.
160 - The files `/var/run/utmp', `/var/log/wtmp' and
161 `/var/log/lastlog' must be installed writeable by group
162 utmp. Programs who need to modify those files must be installed
169 - Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
170 + Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
171 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
172 Section 5 and Section 6.
173 + What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
174 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
175 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
176 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
177 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
179 - Modified the section about changelog files to accomodate
180 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML/ These
181 upstream chagelog files should now be accessible as
182 /usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz
183 + Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
184 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
185 - Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
186 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
187 - Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
188 files. The correct location is /usr/doc/package/copyright
189 - Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
195 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:
196 + symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
197 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
198 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
200 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
201 + manpages for games should be installed in /usr/man/man6
202 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
205 - Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
206 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
207 installs shared libraries
208 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
212 - Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:
213 + /bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
214 + scripts including bashisms have to specify /bin/bash as
216 + scripts which create files in world-writable directories
217 (e.g., in /tmp) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
220 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:
221 + symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
222 file extension as the referenced file
224 - Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:
225 + /dev/tty* serial devices should be used instead of /dev/cu*
227 - Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts [in /etc/init.d]:
228 + all /etc/init.d scripts have to provide the following options:
229 start, stop, restart, force-reload
230 + the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
233 - Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
234 + cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
235 be installed into /etc/cron.d
237 - Updated section 3.7 Menus:
238 + removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
239 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
240 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
243 - New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
244 + details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
247 - New section 3.9 Environment variables:
248 + no program must depend on environment variables to get a
249 reasonable default configuration
251 - New section 4.6 News system configuration:
252 + /etc/news/organization and /etc/news/server should be supported
253 by all news servers and clients
255 - Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Windows system:
256 + programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
257 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
258 + if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
259 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
261 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
262 + games for X Windows have to be installed in /usr/games, just as
265 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0 Sep 97
267 * new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
268 /etc/services, /etc/protocols, /etc/rpc, and /etc/inetd.conf
270 * updated section about `Configuration files':
271 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
273 * MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile
277 * added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
280 where <arch> is one of the following:
281 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
283 * detailed rules for /usr/local
287 * editor/pager policy
293 * don't install shared libraries as executable
295 * app-defaults files may not be conffiles
297 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0 Mar 97
299 * two programs with different functionality must not have the
304 * "Standard for Console Messages"
306 * Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'
308 * Libraries should be stripped with "strip --strip-unneeded"
310 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0 Nov 96
312 * Some changes WRT shared libraries
316 * No hard links in source packages
318 * Do not use dpkg-divert or update-alternatives without consultation
320 * Shared libraries must be installed stripped
324 * Upstream changelog must be installed too
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